Witch Hazel. Pond’s Extract Hamamelis is kept by many people in the house, and as it is usually accompanied with directions, I shall refer to it very briefly. The ordinary fluid extract is perhaps five times as strong as Pond’s extract, and when used may be diluted accordingly. It is astringent, and a medicine of that kind is often useful both internally and externally. A few drops taken each day may prevent bleeding, when there is a tendency to hemorrhage, although ergot would be a more efficient remedy if given for immediate effect.
Chlorate of potash is very generally given in diphtheria, and is generally safe; no harm can come from the advice to keep it constantly in the house; it is not very soluble, and the saturated solution is not too strong for use. It is a good way to put a half teaspoonful of it in a glass, and keep a little water on it all the time, and give ten or twelve teaspoonful doses of the solution a day for any kind of sore throat or mouth.
Compound licorice powder (F. 108) is a mild laxative, and may be given to a young child in half teaspoonful doses. In larger doses it will serve well for older persons for physic. While I think it well to keep this in the house and to occasionally administer it, some other sort of cathartic may at times properly be preferred. A great variety of this sort of medicine is attainable, no one kind is always the best; this powder is however a good laxative, in doses of a teaspoonful repeated in eight hours if necessary.
Gum arabic is not often kept in the house as a medicine, but I think it eminently proper to keep it; scarcely any other medicine is so safe and harmless either in large or small doses, and few are more decidedly useful than this in some cases. Made into an emulsion and taken either alone or in combination with other medicine, or used as food, it is good in every variety of bowel complaint. A teaspoonful of the mucilage stirred into a cup of cold water and drank by the patient, may serve as medicine and drink and sustenance when he can take no other food. It may properly be added to expectorant and diuretic medicines; but the beneficial effects are most obvious when it is administered for inflammatory affections of the gastric and intestinal mucous membrane. Slippery elm and flaxseed tea have a similar effect, but are not so decidedly beneficial.
Carbolic acid nine parts and GLYCERINE one part may be kept mixed together; not because the glycerine assists or modifies the action of the carbolic acid, but because it renders the acid soluble in the water, so that the solution may be of any strength desired. Carbolic acid is not much used internally; it is so powerful that it ought to be regarded as a poison; its effect is good, however, if given in small doses very much diluted. It is believed to be destructive to disease germs, and may very properly be given in bad cases of diarrhœa and dysentery. Two drops of the acid in a glass of water is a weak solution, and may be given without harm; a half teaspoonful every two hours.
There is not space in this work to describe particularly the various cases in which it may be used externally. A solution one part in 100 of water, may be applied advantageously to any inflamed part or to any CUTANEOUS ERUPTION, or may be used as a wash or gargle in any SORE MOUTH or SORE THROAT. To cure sores or eruptions, however, it is often necessary to apply it much stronger. I apply a 1 to 5 solution to the sores once or twice, and to burns a solution 1 to 30 for a few days.
I will give more particular directions for its use in HEMORRHOIDS or PILES. Apply the acid and glycerine (9 to 1) to the piles by dropping 3 drops upon a bit of tissue paper and pressing it against the tumors, and into the anus. Repeat this each day for three days, then use a mild ointment or suppositories. (F. 206.)
A few doses of the compound licorice powder will be useful for piles if the bowels are not regular.
I have already given some specific directions in regard to some diseases in very young children; what further instructions I give will be of a general character.